Report details 10 states facing greatest impact from SNF Medicare cuts

With the clock ticking to March 1 Medicare cuts to nursing homes resulting from the onset of the federal Budget Relief Act's sequester provision, the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care (AQNHC) on Wednesday released a state "Top Ten List" detailing the Medicare cut total to state nursing homes, their residents and their workforce. Avalere Health provided the data.

The top ten Medicare sequestration state cuts to nursing homes with their estimated sequestration impact for FY 2014 are: Calif. $75.9 million; Fla. $66 million; Texas $51 million; N.Y. $47.2 million; Ill. $46.2 million; N.J. $37.5 million; Ohio $37.3 million; Pa. $36.9 million; Mich. $30.2 million; Mass. $28.4 million. The total for the U.S. $782.5 million.

"With the sequester just hours away, now is the optimal time for us to convey that the sequester cuts are just one in a series of deep Medicare funding reductions that add up to significantly larger state level cuts and $65.6 billion cumulative national Medicare cuts over ten years," said Alan G. Rosenbloom, president of the Alliance, in a statement. "The Friday sequester is not the end of anything—It's simply the beginning of another long, arduous and highly consequential cycle of debate where data and policy solutions to control Medicare costs are the coin of the realm with lawmakers."

FY 2014 is the first full fiscal year of sequestration reductions under the Budget Control Act. Additional state data and methodology notes are available at www.aqnhc.org.

Patricia Sheehan

Patricia Sheehan was Editor in Chief of I Advance Senior Care / Long Term Living from 2010-2013. She is now manager, communications at Nestlé USA.